


Miracu-Hack

by titanialioness



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: AI Kwamis, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, Coding, F/M, hacker hawkmoth
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-07
Updated: 2018-04-07
Packaged: 2019-04-19 11:42:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14236524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/titanialioness/pseuds/titanialioness
Summary: With hacker Hawkmoth and his Akuma virus active in Paris, no one is safe. Through spyware and malicious software, he's stolen countless identities, wiped billions in bank savings, and more. Even with all of Paris' cyber security force on the job, no one can track down the elusive cyber-terrorist.Marinette is just a college-level web developer... certainly no match for Hawkmoth. Like many others, her family has been hit by the Akuma virus - their life savings stolen, their bakery slandered online. So when she downloads an AI claiming to be able to stop Hawkmoth once and for all, how could she say no?





	Miracu-Hack

**Author's Note:**

> Listen. I know NOTHING about coding and even less about hacking. But! You know how it is when an idea hits and will not go away until you write it down. 
> 
> Basically, understand that I'm going to push creative license to the limit! Don't expect like, coding accuracy here.

Marinette stared at the email sitting innocently in her inbox.

 

 **Marinette, you have the power to stop Hawkmoth!**  

 

It was spam. It had to be.

Cheap first name token, oddly random emoji, tantalizing offer… it was even flagged as “top priority,” for heaven's sake. Everything about it screamed _spam_.

And spam email was how it always started. Everyone knew that.

Then again, spam was so sophisticated these days. Whoever had made this one was clearly behind on the times, and maybe that was the reason Marinette couldn’t bring herself to just delete the damn thing.

That, and the fact that it had made it through to her actual inbox.

Marinette sighed and spinned away from her desk. She had a website commission to finish—she certainly didn’t have time to sit here mulling over what should have been an obvious answer: Mark the email as spam, block and delete it, clear her browse cache and cookies, then immediately update her password, security question, and 2-step authentication. Run a security and malware scan. Maybe even create an entirely new email address.

Marinette wasn’t sure how much the extra steps really helped when it came to protecting yourself from Hawkmoth, but what else could you do? Like anyone else, Marinette just had to do the best she could and hope it had just been some lesser scam artist or a wanna-be hacker.

She glanced over her shoulder. Eyed the email.

Her phone buzzed, and loud music split the air. Marinette jumped at the sound, nearly falling back in her chair. Her heart was still pounding as she reached for the phone.

“Hey Alya,” she greeted.

“GIRL,” Alya all but shouted into the phone, forcing Marinette to pull it back an inch from her ear. “It’s 11:04 PM! We DID it! That makes an entire WEEK without something getting through the RenaRouge spam filter.”

Ever since the rise of Hawkmoth, Alya had been working around the clock to develop an email client that could weed out his infamous spam emails containing the Akuma virus. She’d roped a few classmates into helping, of course—it was far too big of a project to handle on her own.

Marinette had contributed, too. Not so much the backend of it—she’d dropped out of the computer engineering degree long before learning those languages. But she’d put her web design skills to good use by writing the majority of the CSS styling.

They’d only opened the beta to a few people, of course. Marinette and the rest of the team being part of that beta.

Marinette glanced at her open inbox. The bright red ladybug emojis stood out impossibly bright against the other emails.

It had come in exactly 4 minutes before Alya’s call. And Marinette couldn’t find it in her to admit it.

“Wow, a full week already?” Marinette forced out, thankful they were just talking on the phone. She’d never be able to hide her lying face in person. “That’s amazing!”

“We’re _finally_ getting the upper hand! Like, god! Can you believe? Nino and I were working around the clock to push out that last update, and god, I feel like I could fly. And it’s not just the 5-hour energy I chugged. Looks like Hawkie-boy’s not so smart after all, amiright? Talk about out-FOX-ing him, ha!”

“If anyone can stop him, it’s you, Alya,” Marinette said. That, at least, wasn’t a lie. Alya would figure it out.

“I have to call the rest of the team. I just HAD to tell you first,” Alya gushed. “Love ya girl, BYE!”

The call ended. Marinette set down the phone, the email ladybugs still burning spots into her eyes.

They were only in their 3rd year of university, but Marinette knew she had the brightest and most driven classmates out there. Nino, Juleka, Max, and Rose were the most brilliant developers she knew—and, of course, their fearless leader Alya.

Between them, Marinette did know they’d figure it out eventually. They’d stop Hawkmoth. Even if it was a bit too late for Marinette and her family.

Her mouse hovered over the trash can icon, ready to delete the message.

But what if?

What would Hawkmoth even want from her, at this point? He’d taken everything from her family already. Maybe it was some sort of sick automated email he’d set up to trigger after destroying someone’s life.

Steal a family’s identity, wipe their life savings, classify their bakery as a public health danger in the city records.

The last one would be cleared up before too long. Paris police were used to false claims like that by now.

But it still felt like a kick to the gut. Hawkmoth really had taken everything.

 

  **Marinette, you have the power to stop Hawkmoth!**

 

Marinette clicked.

And immediately regretted clicking.

The opened email didn’t even have a message, but she hardly had time to mull over it before something started downloading.

“No, no, no! Not a virus!” Squealing, flailing, Marinette lunged with her mouse for the _cancel download_ option. But it finished before she could do anything.

Heart pounding, Marinette could hardly feel her fingers as a software window automatically opened. The borders were red with black polka dots, with what looked like a pale pink chatbox in the center.

If she didn’t know better, she’d think it was just Skype with a fancy ladybug skin.

But she knew better.

“Please no!” Marinette cried, frantically clicking to close the window. But the window didn’t close.

When she heard the _blink-bloop_ of her new chat software receiving a message, she only started clicking faster.

 

**TIKKI: Marinette! Everything’s okay, don’t be scared!**

 

She hit CTRL-ALT-DEL. In the control panel, she tried force closing the virus-software-thing, which was just called LADYBUG. Nothing happened.

 

**TIKKI: I know this all seems a bit strange to you, but I’m not here to hurt you! :)**

 

Still whining incoherently, Marinette lunged for her desktop’s power button. If she could shut it down before the virus spread too far...

 

**TIKKI: Wait! Please don’t shut me down!**

 

The message, along with the entire screen, froze for a split second as she the desktop clicked off, then faded to black. Marinette slumped to the ground and let out a heavy sigh.

Remembering the last message, Marinette started trembling harder than before. The virus had known she was going for the power button. Marientte’s eyes swiveled up to her webcam. She’d uncovered it earlier to chat and screenshare with a client, so it was her own fault for forgetting to cover it up again.

Slowly, Marinette lifted herself into her seat and reached for her flower-themed stickers. She was shaking so hard it took her several tries to peel one off and place it over the camera lens. So much for an unsophisticated spam email.

Her parents couldn’t afford a new computer. They could hardly afford rent. And without a computer, she’d never be able to finish the website commissions she had lined up. She couldn’t help.

She slumped facedown onto her keyboard to sob.

Only to bolt upright again at the whirl of her desktop powering back up. Even though she hadn’t clicked anything.

Her computer loaded up incredibly fast. In mere seconds, it was back on. The ladybug-themed chat box loaded up with the rest of it.

Marinette smothered her scream with her hands.

 

**TIKKI: Marinette, I’m not a virus! Will you please hear me out?**

 

“H-How do you know my name? What are you?”

Two stupid questions, really. The program would have run a complete background check on her in seconds, including her first name. And despite what the little program said, it was definitely a virus.

 

 **TIKKI: My name is Tikki, nice to meet you!** **  
** **  
** **TIKKI: I’m an Artificial Intelligence program created and developed by Miracu-Tech.**

 

**TIKKI: I’m here to help you stop Hawkmoth. :)**

 

Marinette blinked at the messages as they appeared. An AI program to help her stop Hawkmoth? It certainly was a lot more effort than she’d expect from a scam.

“Let me guess,” Marinette replied hesitantly, feeling a bit awkward talking to her computer. “You can stop Hawkmoth in exchange for my bank account number, or something?”

 

**TIKKI: No, silly! I don’t want anything in return. I just need someone to help me take down Hawkmoth!**

 

Marinette scoffed. She supposed Hawkmoth had made life much harder for your everyday hacker, considering how beefed up cyber security had gotten since his first strike against the Paris city police records. It made sense that they'd try to band up against him at some point.

“Well, unfortunately you have the wrong girl,” Marinette said. “I don't know the first thing about cyber security, let alone the languages I'd need to know to stop a mastermind like Hawkmoth.”

 

**TIKKI: You were chosen for a reason, Marinette! Want to see what we can do together?**

 

She hesitated. Was she about to become an accomplice in something illegal? Even without being able to see her, the AI seemed able to read her silence.

 

**TIKKI: Let's start with something small. Who would you like to help?**

 

**TIKKI: We can reverse the damage that Hawkmoth has done.**

 

“My family! We have to help my family. Hawkmoth…” The words died on her lips. Hawkmoth had taken everything from them.

For the first time, the AI Tikki seemed to need a moment to process Marinette’s words. Several long moments lapsed before a message appeared on the screen.

 

**TIKKI: I would love to help your family, Marinette!**

 

**TIKKI: But I recommend against helping them first. Hawkmoth may use it as a clue to finding out your identity, once you begin to oppose him.**

 

**TIKKI: You MUST keep your identity a secret. If Hawkmoth knows who you are, all your loved ones will be in danger.**

 

“Oh…”

Marinette tried to think of a way around the logic, but there was none. There’d be no point in helping her family if it ended up only endangering them even more in the long run.

 

**TIKKI: Let’s help them 3rd or 4th, so Hawkmoth won’t connect the dots! What do you say?**

 

Marinette stared at the chatbox. Was she willing to risk it, just for a chance at helping her parents?

There really wasn’t much to lose at this point. If Tikki actually was a virus, her computer would be thoroughly infected by now. And she doubted there was much she could do for the rest of the house, either. If the AI could turn on her computer, it could spread to the rest of her home network.

She was going to agree. She knew she would say yes, if only for a chance to make things right again. Maybe it was stupid, but something in her gut said she could trust Tikki.

There was just one part holding her back.

“Why me, though? What reason?”

 

**TIKKI: I can handle the technical side of what we’ll do together, but I need your creative thinking and eye for design, Marinette.**

 

**TIKKI: Hawkmoth is using an AI similar to me, except his has been corrupted for evil. Lucky for us, that means his work leaves behind evidence.**

 

**TIKKI: If you can find Hawkmoth’s mark, then I can take care of the rest.**

 

“His mark? What do you mean?”

 

**TIKKI: My instructions are to tell you: “Look for the butterfly.”**

 

**TIKKI: The deeper meaning of that is beyond my processing. Since his mark is invisible to me, I can’t even offer an example.**

 

**TIKKI: Are you willing to give it a try?**

 

Marinette still didn’t know if Tikki was telling the truth or not. But at this point, she didn’t have much to lose.

And what she had to gain…

“Alright. Let’s do this.”

**Author's Note:**

> As always, come bug me on Tumblr: [adrinette-forever.tumblr.com](https://adrinette-forever.tumblr.com)
> 
> Updates will be slooooow. But I hate leaving things unfinished, so I will add more and finish eventually!


End file.
